Obama: Pot users not 'top priority'

Dec. 14, 2012
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President Obama / Carolyn Kaster, AP

by David Jackson, USA TODAY

by David Jackson, USA TODAY

President Obama says the federal government will not target recreational users of marijuana in states that have now legalized pot.

"We've got bigger fish to fry," Obama told Barbara Walters of ABC News, in his first public comments on the topic since Colorado and Washington voted to legalize marijuana on Nov. 6 referendums.

"It would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have determined that it's legal," Obama said.

The government takes a similar approach in the 18 states where medicinal marijuana is legal.

Walters' interview of Obama airs Friday night on ABC's 20/20.

Obama also told Walters he does not "at this point" support widespread legalization of marijuana.

"This is a tough problem, because Congress has not yet changed the law," Obama said. "I head up the executive branch; we're supposed to be carrying out laws. And so what we're going to need to have is a conversation about, how do you reconcile a federal law that still says marijuana is a federal offense and state laws that say that it's legal?"

"Obama wrote in his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, that he would smoke pot regularly with his high school buddies who formed a 'club of disaffection.' The group was known as the 'Choom Gang,' says Obama biographer David Maraniss.

"'There are a bunch of things I did that I regret when I was a kid,' Obama told Walters. 'My attitude is, substance abuse generally is not good for our kids, not good for our society.